22nd March 2026 marked the 30th anniversary of the Japanese launch of Resident Evil — or Biohazard — on PlayStation. To celebrate, we'll be publishing various articles this week focused on Capcom's quintessential survival horror series. 30 years is a pretty long time for any game series. But while many — including the likes of Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy — make the onboarding process easy with largely self-contained entries, Resident Evil is a different beast altogether. Putting aside some of the more obscure spin-off entries, Resident Evil has managed to maintain a pretty extensive overarching narrative throughout its history; one in which story threads told in 2026's Requiem can be traced all the way back to the 1996 original. For newcomers, it might be difficult to figure out where the hell to start. Sure, mainline entries are mostly numbered for convenience, but spin-offs muddy the water somewhat. So here, we'll go through a handful of entries that we think would serve as a solid starting point into the world of Resident Evil. Resident Evil, specifically the 2002 remake, is the ultimate expression of creator Shinji Mikami's vision. It's where the story begins, with a series of brutal murders in the Arklay Mountains on the outskirts of Raccoon City. More than two decades on, newcomers might find the fixed camera angles a little difficult to get along with at first, but with optional modernised controls added in for the Switch re-release, it’s perhaps the most sensible place to start. That said, we wouldn't oppose going back even further and trying the 1996 original for the PS1. This is literally where it all started, but we'd argue that the changes made for the GameCube remake significantly improve upon the experience. The GC version still feels old-school by modern standards, but it strikes a better balance for series virgins. While the first game is the most obvious place to start, Resident Evil 0 launched the same year as the remake and, as the titl